My seminal experience was with a Nakamichi Tape deck. It was used... of early 70’s vintage... the first generation, seven years old. I had purchased a top of the line Harmon Kardon (highly reviewed... product of the year). I took this ridiculously expensive old used tape deck ... about 40 pounds, upright, wood around it. It was an order of magnitude better than the Harmon. My jaw simply dropped as I heard by far better sound than I thought possible by a huge amount. The old used deck cost three times the new cost of the new Harmon Kardon. The new cost for the Nakamichi was way more than 3x.
I can honestly say, I have never heard an "affordable" "audiophile" product that sounded like one. Every audiophile component that has been simply stunning sounding has cost an absurd amount of money... and been worth it. If it didn’t cost more than my car... didn’t blow me away. As many times as I have tried "giant killers" they have been a complete waste of money... every single time. They never are.
On the other hand, the price tag is not a guarantee... that is why huge amounts of research is required, to match your taste with the house sound of the product... this I learned over the decades.
